Aircraft and industrial gas turbine engines include a combustor in which fuel is burned to input energy to the engine cycle. Typical combustors incorporate one or more fuel nozzles whose function is to introduce liquid or gaseous fuel into an air flow stream so that it can atomize and burn. General gas turbine engine combustion design criteria include optimizing the mixture and combustion of a fuel and air to produce high-energy combustion while minimizing emissions such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, and unburned hydrocarbons, as well as minimizing combustion tones due, in part, to pressure oscillations during combustion. Additionally, general gas turbine engine combustion design must produce gas turbine engine operability at full power condition as well as part power conditions without producing undesirable emissions outputs or pressure oscillations.
Therefore, a need exists for a fuel nozzle or combustion assembly that may produce high-energy combustion while minimizing emissions and combustion instability at full power and part power conditions.